Comments: I got 7 reviews. 7 I'll just let you think about what's wrong with that…
And another thing…I did not rip the title of "Fukai Mori" from SilentMourning. It is my favorite song and I was not aware that there was another story with the same title..i am sorry if I offended anybody.
Disclaimer: I love Sesshoumaru but really…if a guy really existed like him…I would be scared of him…I don't own him…
Chapter Two: Elusive Memories
Groggy, Kagome woke up more tired than when she fell asleep. Stretching, she noticed that it was well into afternoon and after hearing her stomach threaten to digest itself, she added eating to her list of things to do.
Unfolding herself from the warm position in the bed, her eyes fell onto a pile of neatly folded clothing. Strange though, the clothing didn't seem like hers, but what did she know? She couldn't even remember her name before.
Donning the garments, she let her eyes drift close and swayed her body to feel the heavenly feel of the cloth whisper against her skin. Surely, if she had worn this before, she would have remembered the ecstatic feeling of the smooth cloth.
Thinking about the quality of the cloth, she concluded that he was rich. So, why was she here?
* * * * * * * * * * *
As soon as Kagome stepped outside, the sun decided to make her life miserable in the only way it could. Wincing, she hated the rays shining in her eyes.
But, she was only dazzled for a minute before her eyes quickly adjusted and Kagome murmured in pleasure. The garden was a fountain of so many colors. Roses climbed pillars and spilled their blood red petals to the floor. Clumps of violets and lilies scattered the deck and a pond in the center reflected the lazy clouds overhead. An occasional koi broke the surface of the still water with flashes of gold and red. (AN: I'm not sure what flowers actually existed in Japan.)
Breathing in the pleasant aroma, she felt something tug at the corner of her mind.
She looked up in alarm as she interpreted the tug correctly. Sesshoumaru, sitting on a stone bench, partially hidden by the rose laden pillars, was watching her.
He had been watching Kagome ever since she entered the garden. Now, as she looked at him in alarm, Sesshoumaru felt somewhat, to his surprise, disturbed. A feeling he didn't feel often. Quickly quelling the strange unwanted emotion, he rose slowly and deliberately walked toward her still figure with his usual smooth, graceful gait.
Kagome began to panic but couldn't help notice how utterly attractive he was. Even his remoteness and cold demeanor didn't hide the fact that Sesshoumaru was a very fine example of a perfect demon.
He stopped mere inches from her and when she gathered the courage to look up at him, his gaze seemed to penetrate the very walls of her soul.
Then, as if he thought she was worth nothing more than an inconvenience, he ignored her stare and walked past her to disappear into the castle.
* * * * * * * * * * *
She was annoyed. For the second time, he dismissed her so casually, so expertly, that she hadn't even a chance to react. She was so annoyed!
She wasn't exactly annoyed at him. It was just frustrating that she continued to act like she really was nothing, a miniscule speck in the immenseness of the universe.
She resolved then, that the next time he did that, she would give him a piece of her mind just to sooth her ruffled feathers from being treated like dirt.
After solving that small problem, she continued her tour of the garden. The stunning array of color and the somewhat scattered, yet organized presentation of the plants made it difficult to see the owner in such a bad light. How can one so cold and distant, bring himself to create such a masterpiece or, if he had someone else do it, how can he sit there to just enjoy the beauty. No, there must be something more to the mysterious demon than meets the eye.
As she thought of this she didn't notice the rising in her temperature and the thundering of her heartbeat. But when she did, she was shocked.
What had caused this feeling deep inside the depth of her soul? Surely it couldn't be…?
Kagome fell against a rose covered pillar and wrapped herself in her arms. No…why is there an inborn fear of this feeling, as if…it was bad.
She trembled with her turmoil and pushed herself off the pillar to stumble off in a random direction.
As she rounded a corner, a sight that so stunned her that she stopped in her random track greeted her eyes. A doorway that seemed to lead to an outside world she couldn't remember.
For moments, she resisted the urge to run, but the memory of the feelings that Sesshoumaru roused in her banished her brief hesitation and she took off at a dead run for her one chance at freedom. Her footing, once unsure, lost their randomness and her eyes focused on the one point in the world outside of her dreary prison.
Just as she crossed the doorway that defined her existence, she felt such an exhilaration of freedom that all the feelings of confinement that she had unknowingly harbored fled and her feet seemed to fly across the grass.
She ran as long as she could and walked until she could run again.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Finally, Kagome got tired of running and she slowed down to rest as the root of a shady tree. As she sat there, the peacefulness of her surroundings and the whisper of the breeze slowly lulled her to sleep.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Her body felt as if it was floating, in a heavenly pool of feathers.
Suddenly, she was wrenched from her pool of feathers, into a clearing. At first, it seemed quite ordinary, like the ones that she vaguely remembered passing.
As she watched the leaves drift through the air in their lazy descent to the ground, a shadow materialized at the far side of the clearing.
It slowly got closer, and closer, and she found herself looking at a young woman in the traditional miko's outfit. Her face was in shadows and the figure continued, as if unaware of another's presence, to walk, aimlessly toward Kagome.
Something in the strange woman's demeanor stuck her as odd, and the feeling of impending danger vibrated through Kagome's taut body. Even as she acknowledged this, she found that she could not move and could only watch as the figure drew herself upright and stopped in front of her.
Silently, the miko raised her head in a limp fashion and fastened its lank eyes upon Kagome.
She felt the shock of seeing the miko for the first time strike her dumb. The woman looked almost exactly like Kagome. Its hands found its way around her neck, and hatred gleamed bright in the previously bland eyes.
Kagome struggled against the monstrous strength of this strange creature but found it futile. The miko's grip tightened and Kagome soon started to feel her consciousness fade.
As her vision grew dimmer and the shrieks of hatred echoed through her mind, she saw a face. Its golden eyes were framed by silvery white hair. The facial features, oddly, were too vague to make out but the eyes and hair stood out in stark contrast to the vagueness of everything else.
Who? Who was he?
* * * * * * * * * * *
Sesshoumaru knew that he should not have ignored the girl without setting a guard on her.
Now, he was stuck looking for her.
The possibilities of her finding the back garden door was slim since there was a powerful spell hiding it from view to prevent people stealing in or out. Nevertheless, he should not have forgotten that she was a powerful miko. There was still a chance, however slim, that she had seen through the spell.
Indeed, her scent seemed to prove him right.
What a troublesome wench. Why could she not just be an obedient human like all the others, and stay out of trouble?
Even as he asked himself, he knew that he did not actually want such a human. Too many humans cower at the sight of him and it had started to get quite bothersome. He was satisfied that the humans saw his superiority, but they had become so dull, that it did not matter much to him.
Kagome's straight forwardness and spunk was a refreshing reprieve from his otherwise dull life.
Stopping to sniff the air for her scent he noticed another, more foul, scent mingle with hers. It was newer than Kagome's, which, Sesshoumaru deduced, meant something was following her.
This new information did not sit well with him. If this new evil was really hunting Kagome…she did not even stand a chance.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Kagome willed the image to stay, but it did not appear to have listened and soon disappeared along with the girl who looked like her. With only a feathery tough to her cheek, she slowly came back into the world of the living only to find that she could not move.
She seemed to be bound together with rope and a putrid stench emanated from the ugly looking demons surrounding her.
However, her eyes were not on them, for standing a few feet away was Sesshoumaru.
From her position on the ground, his profile looked so noble with his white hair whipping out behind him, his eyes slightly narrowed as if challenging those puny wannabe youkais. His tail had unwound from its original position on his shoulder and was currently held right about her body. This must have been what woke her up. Oddly enough, she felt safer with Sesshoumaru here.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Sesshoumaru was annoyed. Why so much trouble for this human? For all that, she looked harmless and lost, she was one of the most powerful mikos at this time. It did not matter that she did not remember who she was, much less what she was. If she died youkais around the world would feel a little safer, and become a little bolder.
Yet, he was a taiyoukai, a youkai nonetheless. Why did he not feel threatened by this awesome power laying but a few steps away?
A possessive thought struck him. She was his. No one, nothing, could touch her because she belonged to him. His to kill, torture, starve, or whatever it was that he decided to mete out to her.
He had found her first.
But, as he watched one youkai attempt an intimidating snarl, he wondered yet again whether she was really worth the inconvenience.
He watched them for a moment and came to the conclusion that they were all a bunch of cowardly idiots, literally. (AN: I cannot write action scenes for the life of me so this is gonna sound really corny…)
To avoid wasting any unnecessary time, he grabbed Kagome with his tail and leapt up with a grace that bordered on impossible.
The youkais, having no neck, could not look up, so instead, squawked around in confusion. (AN: wait…it even gets worse…groan)
Suddenly, one youkai burst open in a huge explosion of blood and guts. The pieces splattered everywhere.
As if on cue, the whole group of youkais squealed and ran in all directions, exploding one by one.
Meanwhile, Sesshoumaru was on his way back to his castle. (AN: yee gods…makes you wonder why I haven't died yet…the corniness.._)
* * * * * * * * * * *
Somehow, Kagome felt a bit cheated by the fact that she could not see Sesshoumaru in action.
She was sure that she had seen a lot of fighting before, but she doubted that it was as appealing as even the thought of Sesshoumaru fighting. Of course, if he had been trying to kill her, she doubted that, that would have been the case.
As soon as his castle came into view, Kagome felt Sesshoumaru begin to descend to the ground. As he was doing so, she noticed that he wore a slight frown.
Not knowing if this small show of emotion was bad or good, she hesitated to ask him what was wrong.
Before she could work up the courage to ask him, he did it for her.
"Kagome." He said softly without looking at her.
"W-what?" she swallowed nervously. Maybe now was when he decides to eat her.
"You are never to do that again." He turned his head to look at her. "Do you understand?"
Kagome knew that he wasn't asking whether she understood, but was, instead, telling her to. Still stubborn and unwillingly to be bossed around, she saucily replied, "Never do what again?"
Saying nothing as their feet touched the soft carpet of leaves coating the forest floor, he continued to look at her with a mask of calm.
"You're the one that kidnapped me! What am I supposed to do?! Just sit there and wait for you to eat me?! I'm not stupid, you know!" Kagome clenched her fists at her side. "I can't even remember what my name is. I cannot remember what I was. Where I was from. " She glared at him. "What did you expect me to do?"
Throughout her entire tirade, Sesshoumaru stood still, totally unperturbed. Then, when she finished, he only said, "Who said I kidnapped you?"
"Uh…" Taken aback by his simple question, she tried to recall how she knew she was kidnapped. "You didn't?"
Turning away, he started walking back to his castle.
"Hey! Answer me." She cried out.
Without pausing in his steps, he replied, "Who said I didn't?"
"Eh?? What do you me…!" She choked off the last part of her question, when he turned violently around to look at her again with narrowed eyes.
"You will never run away from me again. You are mine." Though his words were spoken softly, Kagome felt the intensity that he radiated. "No one will touch you."
Story is coming along pretty slow, but since I have yet to write Chapter Four…maybe your reviews will influence neh?
Also…
Forgive me but, alas, my dad is being an ass. He disconnected my internet connection entirely, so now, I have to upload stories from my friends' computers. So, stories will be coming slower…actually, this chapter came along pretty fast since I pushed myself to type it up…zzZZzz…but it is a once in a blue moon thing… so sorry
Taiyoukai-Kai
